"That scholar... I think I know who that might be."
It was dinnertime. Rei was recounting the day's events over a meal in Marina's courtyard as usual—particularly the incident with the crayfish he'd fought at the lake. Marina frowned slightly as she spoke.
He'd also mentioned checking the underground beneath the Treant Forest beforehand, but since nothing resembling an actual disturbance had occurred there, it was quickly brushed aside.
Grimm was perhaps occupied with his experiments; he didn't respond even when Rei reached out to him.
"You know him? He seemed to resent me quite a bit. What do you think he'll do?"
The scholar Rei brought up—the one Marina might know—wasn't the person he'd negotiated with over the crayfish materials. It was the one who'd made the unreasonable demand that Rei capture the crayfish alive, without killing or injuring it.
To Rei, expecting anything but a terrible impression from such a man was simply impossible.
"He said he'd report to Lord Daskar. Do you think he actually will?"
"He probably will. But whether Daskar entertains it is another matter entirely."
Rei felt relieved at Marina's words.
Considering Daskar's personality, he doubted the man would give a scholar like that the time of day, but a sliver of unease had remained.
Still, if Marina—who had known Daskar since childhood—said so, Rei could rest easy.
"But..."
Seeing Rei relieved, Marina continued, looking somewhat apologetic.
"I don't think Daskar will entertain him, but that scholar... his name is Soltey, and he should have connections to a King's Faction noble. I just hope he doesn't cause any trouble on that end."
At Marina's words, it was Ara—rather than Elena—who wore an expression of understanding.
"Soltey? I've heard of him as well. They say he has a strong desire for fame. He conducts various research under the patronage of a powerful figure within the King's Faction. However, I've also heard he leaks intelligence from his patron noble to rival nobles, using academic freedom as a shield."
"That's... a textbook parasite, isn't it?"
Rei spoke his honest mind at Ara's words.
Marina had mentioned connections to a noble and a King's Faction noble, but to Rei, it sounded like nothing other than a parasite feeding on its host.
If anything, he felt the patron noble was the more pitiful one.
"True. But precisely because he's that kind of parasite, he has many people benefiting from him—which means many will help him for their own gain... He'll probably make a fuss over this incident and blow it all out of proportion."
Troublesome.
That was Rei's candid impression after hearing from Marina and Ara.
The parasitized noble should just cut the scholar loose.
He thought as much, but the fact that it hadn't happened meant there must be a reason they couldn't.
In fact, if this was information Ara knew, it wouldn't be strange for Daskar to know it too.
And yet, Daskar had allowed that scholar Soltey to participate in the lake investigation.
It was only natural to conclude there was an appropriate reason for doing so.
"Well, once tomorrow's festival is over, I'm heading to Egginis, so it shouldn't be a problem."
"Rei, sowing the seeds of trouble without sticking around to reap them—don't you think that's a bit questionable?"
Such an exasperated remark slipped from Elena's mouth.
But as far as Rei was concerned, he hadn't done anything wrong in today's lake incident.
...Granted, if Rei weren't such a formidable adventurer, he might have been forced to yield to the authority of the noble backing Soltey. But that possibility never crossed his mind.
If Soltey openly acted hostile toward him, Rei would attack without hesitation.
Even against a noble, Rei would act without hesitation.
Even if it were a scholar of authority—though from what Ara and Marina described, he seemed to be a scholar with nothing but authority—Rei would swing Death Scythe without mercy.
Like a scythe wielded by the Grim Reaper himself.
It was precisely because they were in a safe position that such people became aggressive.
The moment they judged themselves to be in danger, they would raise the white flag without a second thought—such was Rei's view, shaped by his experience dealing with that sort of opponent.
"If they try something, I'll respond accordingly... But ultimately, this Soltey is a King's Faction scholar, right? Then there's a limit to what he can do in Gilm."
If this were a King's Faction city or town, Soltey might have tried to pick a fight with Rei.
But this was Gilm, governed by Daskar, who led the Neutral Faction.
If he tried to lay a hand on Rei in a place like this, he would face swift retaliation.
And since this wasn't a city under King's Faction rule, there was no one to shelter Soltey.
No—the nobles in the Noble District might try to shield him, but no matter how much Soltey claimed academic freedom, there was no way Daskar would listen.
If anything, considering it an act driven by selfish ambition, appropriate punishment would naturally follow.
Moreover, Rei was Daskar's trump card.
Rei himself had no such intention, but Daskar had deliberately led others to believe that Rei was his trusted aide.
Given that, unless Rei was clearly at fault—if Rei had done nothing wrong and Soltey was the one who instigated—Daskar would naturally take Rei's side.
"Anyway, first is tomorrow's festival. I just hope that Soltey doesn't make a scene over the Crystal Dragon."
"The Crystal Dragon... a new species of S-Rank Monster dragon inhabiting the Forest of Magic, right? It's not just Soltey—I imagine there are plenty of people who'd want to make it their own."
At Marina's words, Rei recalled the incident he'd reported to Egg's subordinates.
At first glance, a stall owner like any other.
But his eyes alone were different.
He'd been scanning his surroundings with a gaze like a predator who'd found its prey.
Egg's subordinates had no information on the stall owner either.
They rushed to the stall's location based on Rei's tip, but the stall was already gone.
The man, realizing from Rei's demeanor that he was under suspicion, must have fled the moment Rei left.
Thinking of it that way, he possessed a high Danger Detection Ability.
And he wasn't the only one—a large number of people were currently in Gilm for the Expansion Construction work.
Warning against every suspicious individual among them was, from the start, an unreasonable demand.
"There may be those who attempt to steal the Crystal Dragon's materials... I'd like to believe no one in the Noble Faction would do such a thing, at least."
For Elena, as someone who stood as the symbol of the Noble Faction, she prayed that no one within the faction would try to steal materials from Rei's Crystal Dragon corpse.
But no matter how much Elena represented the Noble Faction, it was impossible to fully grasp every action taken by all its members.
What's more, many within the Noble Faction still took their privileged noble status for granted, and there were plenty who found it distasteful that the Neutral Faction didn't prioritize noble privilege above all else.
In fact, the very reason Elena was in Gilm was because, despite the cooperative relationship between the Noble Faction and the Neutral Faction, certain people found it unacceptable that Gilm—governed by Daskar, who led the Neutral Faction—was undergoing Expansion Construction to grow from a town into a city, and had moved to obstruct it.
For that reason, if a Noble Faction noble attempted to steal Crystal Dragon materials under these circumstances, Elena's reputation would be utterly ruined.
Should that happen, Elena naturally would be unable to forgive the noble responsible, and would have to punish them under the name of Duke Kerebel's House, which led the Noble Faction.
Elena wished to avoid such a situation as much as possible, so she had firmly warned the Noble Faction nobles.
Fortunately, a great number of nobles wishing to make contact with Rei had been visiting the house over the past several days.
With that in mind, warning them not to pick fights with Rei wasn't a difficult matter.
However, there were some who, even when warned by Elena, had received orders from their families, or harbored the baseless confidence that they wouldn't be caught if they acted on their own.
For people like that, anything Elena said would be futile.
Moreover, those who would act in such a manner weren't limited to Noble Faction nobles; there could be King's Faction nobles, or in some cases, even Neutral Faction nobles.
There was even the possibility that someone from outside the country might make a move.
"Egg's group is going to be really busy for a while."
"That's true. But Daskar knows that too, so he's apparently supplementing their personnel."
"I know. When I went to Egg's hideout today, there were faces I didn't recognize."
So said Rei—though it wasn't as if he knew every single one of Egg's subordinates by face.
If it came to that, Egg would have to take some sort of measure regarding Rei... though whether he actually could was another matter entirely.
"Oh, you saw them? Anyway, that's why talent should be gathering on Egg's end as well. What's puzzling is just how he manages to recruit people who are ready to use."
Indeed.
Rei agreed with Marina's words.
Given the nature of their behind-the-scenes work, there were naturally many things that couldn't be brought to light.
If they recruited half-baked talent, they'd only become a burden.
If there were time and manpower to spare, they could afford to train people first, but under the current circumstances, there was no such leeway.
In other words, what they needed was ready-to-use talent.
Given that, how Egg managed to gather people who could be deployed immediately was a genuine question.
"If I had to guess... crushing the underground organizations in Gilm and poaching their personnel, with the condition that they wouldn't be arrested?"
Because Gilm was the sole frontier in the Kingdom of Mireana, enormous wealth gathered here.
For that very reason, many underground organizations existed, all targeting that wealth.
Several organizations had picked fights with Rei in the past and been destroyed—or at the very least suffered major damage—so by now, an unspoken understanding had been established: no one antagonized Rei.
However, that understanding applied solely to Rei.
What's more, with many people currently flooding into Gilm seeking work from the Expansion Construction, the underground organizations saw no shortage of prey.
When they crossed the line that should never be crossed over that prey... the ones who emerged were Egg and his group.
As long as that line wasn't crossed, Egg's group wouldn't interfere.
The underground organizations were indeed illegal entities involved in numerous crimes, but the fact remained that a certain order was maintained in the underworld as a result.
Even for Daskar, serving as the lord of a place like Gilm required swallowing both the clean and the dirty.
In that sense, a certain threshold existed... but those who crossed it were designated for disposal and crushed.
Among the organizations thus crushed, those with sufficient ability and reasonably decent character would be approached by Egg and recruited.
That was how they replenished their personnel—but neither Rei... nor anyone else knew about any of this.
Rei himself didn't even realize that the words he'd casually tossed out had hit the mark.
"In any case, once we get through tomorrow's festival, the dissection will begin at the Guild warehouse, and the Guild should hire skilled adventurers as guards. I'll... well, need to come back from time to time, but I can disguise myself or something to receive the dissected materials."
Considering the work of stripping the Crystal Dragon's materials, it inevitably had to be done that way.
As time passed, the freshness of the materials would naturally degrade, so Rei's best option was to stay in Gilm for a while... but if he did, without a doubt, a large number of people would come seeking him out.
Considering those circumstances, Rei was better off leaving Gilm as planned and heading to Egginis until the commotion settled down.
Reflecting that busy days undoubtedly lay ahead, Rei enjoyed his dinner.